DISCARDED CIGARETTE BUTT MAY HAVE SPARKED DEADLY BLAZE
Questions raised over lack of action after building owners ignored safety orders issued 16 years ago
A discarded cigarette butt among plastic rubbish bags is suspected to have sparked Wednesday’s fire that killed five people in a crowded old Yau Ma Tei building full of subdivided flats, guest houses and other residential and commercial premises.
Sources told the Post yesterday that a preliminary investigation suggested the rubbish bags burst into flames at the bottom of a lightwell on the first floor of the 16-storey New Lucky House.
The revelation came amid questions as to why no enforcement action was taken against the building owners who were issued fire prevention orders 16 years ago but failed to comply and repeatedly ignored safety instructions upon follow-up inspections.
The building was one of thousands that were issued similar orders but have yet to comply, raising concerns about how many more such disasters could be waiting to happen and prompting lawmakers to call for fast-tracked legislation that would empower the authorities to unilaterally carry out fire safety improvement works.
Apart from the five dead, the blaze left 43 people injured, including six in a critical condition. A baby girl previously listed as being in critical condition had improved to serious.
As residents began returning to their homes in the building on Jordan Road to retrieve belongings while they wait in temporary accommodation for water and electricity to be restored, progress in the investigation has shed light on the possible cause of the fire.
“An investigation into the source of the spark that ignited the bags is still under way,” a source familiar with the case said, adding that a discarded cigarette butt from a public corridor on an upper floor of the building was being considered as the possible ignition source.
He said cigarette butts could be found in the public areas on almost every floor of the building. The rubbish bags, believed to be intended for household waste, were delivered to the building and stored about a week ago, he added.
No signs of arson or any other criminal element had been found, but should a discarded cigarette butt be determined to be the source of the fire, the smoker could be prosecuted for manslaughter, the insider noted.
New Lucky House was constructed in 1964 and the Buildings Department had ordered its owners’ corporation to address fire safety concerns in 2008, requiring them to upgrade protection measures to meet modern requirements.
A building safety expert and a district councillor familiar with the situation said such rectifications were often deemed expensive by owners and it was not uncommon for them to fail to reach a consensus on how to tackle upgrades.
New Lucky House was ordered, among other requirements, to replace fire doors and add fire-resistant protective materials to certain facilities and fixed windows.
According to the Buildings Department, the owners’ corporation had hired consulting companies in 2015 and 2020 to handle the orders, and despite the department following up and sending advisory letters, the tasks were never completed.
Orders were also issued to the owners of two flats on March 19 after safety violations were found, requiring them to restore some fire doors and fire-resistant walls.
The state of the building points to a wider problem. Official data shows that of 347,715 fire safety orders issued by the Fire Services Department and the Buildings Department after the inspection of 10,761 buildings, only 128,351 – 36.9 per cent – had been tackled or completed by last June. The figures, contained in a Legislative Council document from December, are the most recent ones from the government.
Chris Ip Ngo-tung, a Yau Tsim Mong district councillor who had tried working with the owners’ corporation of New Lucky House on the fire safety upgrade, said the process was complicated by disputes among “various people”.
Apart from 35 guest houses and about 100 subdivided flats, the building has a gym, shops and offices, as well as several traditional Chinese medicine clinics.
Ip said owners were divided over whether to simply carry out the order or conduct major repairs.
“They ended up refusing further assistance from we district councillors and government officers, so we had to drop the case,” he told a radio show.
Ip said disagreements among owners in older buildings were not uncommon as they often had to deal with maintenance issues.
“Owners have to raise funds together and also agree on a construction company and consultants,” he said. “It can get quite difficult.”
Veteran surveyor Vincent Ho Kui-yip said fire safety upgrades usually involved installing water tanks and a sprinkler system, which could be difficult in older buildings.
“Those installations use up a lot of space, so people come up with a lot of reasons saying it is difficult and expensive to do them,” he told the same show.
In general, fire upgrade work costs about HK$1 million, but the price tag can rise to as much as HK$3 million in more complicated cases.
The government submitted a proposal to amend the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance to the legislature last December.
The change would allow authorities to carry out fire safety improvement work on buildings where the owners failed to comply with orders, and recover the costs from them, with a surcharge of no more than 20 per cent when completed.
Firefighters had yesterday morning nearly extinguished a massive blaze at a construction site that burned for more than 40 hours.
The fire, which began at a Housing Society site in Tin Shui Wai at about 1.20pm on Tuesday, was largely put out by 7am.
The Fire Services Department said in the morning some firefighters still needed to stay behind to prevent the fire from emerging again.
Wong King-man, deputy chief fire officer of New Territories North, said the vast area of the site, together with a large amount of building materials, had complicated the operation.
“The fire site is 70 by 80 metres, meaning the size is more than 5,000 square metres,” Wong said.
“There was lots of smoke and the temperature was very high, going beyond 500 degrees Celsius.” The highly flammable oxyacetylene cylinders at the site also contributed to the intense fire, Wong said.
Firefighters were able to rein in the blaze after changing their defensive strategy to a more proactive one on Wednesday, authorities said.
Emergency personnel were unable to access the basement area of the site, where they said they believed the fire started, for more than a day.
Drones were deployed for aerial surveillance and robots were sent to assist firefighters during the marathon bid to gain the upper hand.
Wong said the basement was like a maze, with metal and wooden frames strewn about that prevented firefighters from getting in.
As of yesterday morning, authorities had mobilised 741 firefighters and emergency personnel, 201 fire engines and 14 ambulances.
Eight water jets and six breathing apparatus teams were involved.
At its peak, the fire was upgraded to a No 4 alarm. Fires in the city are rated on a scale of one to five, with five the most serious.
The Fire Services Department previously said explosions, possibly linked to the oxyacetylene cylinders, had occurred in the basement.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation. No casualties have been reported, but residents nearby were forced to close their windows to prevent the plumes of thick smoke from entering their flats.
Mary Chan Yuen-ming, a chief officer at the Buildings
Department, said two tower cranes at the site were under no immediate danger. Officers from the department would also stay behind at the site to provide help to firefighters.
She said further inspections were needed to determine when construction work could resume at the site.
“We need to go inside the site to do an assessment and to see if there is any follow-up work needed,” Chan said, adding that they would also inspect the supporting bases of the two tower cranes.
The site will host 962 subsidised flats being built as part of the second phase of the Hung Shui Kiu/Ha Tsuen New Development Area under the Housing Society. Construction is expected to be completed in 2026.
The society said it would consider reinforcing two tower cranes at the site, or disassembling and replacing them, after the site reopened.